Grant Brisbee does a great job explaining why the Dodgers debt problem isn’t a payroll problem.

Even with a payroll closer to $200 million, the Dodgers are betting on more Coreys Seager, Julios Urias, and Jocs Pederson, low cost players with youth on their side and arbitration awards just out of reach. They’ll have to make a decision on Clayton Kershaw (if they let him write out the words and numbers on the check, for example), but they’ll have Adrian Gonzalez off the books. Same with Andre ...

I was joined by fellow MLBPipeline.com reporter Jim Callis, Jesse Sanchez from MLB.com and LasMayores.com, D-backs broadcaster and SiriusXM host Mike Ferrin and MLB.com columnist and MLB Network Insider Tracy Ringlosby. Here are the five players we focused on in the first edition of “The Next Big Leaguers:”

Team president Stan Kasten, however, said that the Dodgers are not facing any payroll restrictions or any pressure from baseball.

“There is no mandate. There is no problem with our debt,” Kasten said. “We are continuing to operate on the same program we have since the day we walked in here in 2012. That’s building through our minor-league system while continuing to aggressively put the best team on the field that we can each year.”

Monday, November 28, 2016

Shaq Thompson does not have to wonder if he chose the correct path. He was the worst professional baseball player of all time.

In 39 at bats for the Gulf Coast Red Sox in 2012, Thompson struck out 37 times. Pairing that with a rather generous 17.0% walk rate (folks, the GCL isn’t necessarily packed with high quality pitchers), Thompson managed to put the ball in play just twice — 4.2% of the time. I wrote the story of those two at bats last year but spoiler alert: they weren’t base hits. ...

We’re just a few months away from the onset of the fourth World Baseball Classic—the once-every-four-years global tournament that began play in 2006.
Turns out, we could be just a few months away from the end of the World Baseball Classic in multiple senses. That’s because the 2017 tournament could be the final edition of the WBC unless there’s a significant uptick in revenue, according to Cristian Moreno of ESPN:

This is sadly predictable. While the pretense of the WBC is twofold—to spread ...

It is certainly easy to understand why the Cubs can be expected to win multiple World Series titles over the next few years. Seven of the eight projected starters in next year’s everyday lineup are 27 or younger, causing the oddsmakers to universally install the Cubs as favorite to win it all again in 2017.
...
“There’s an intensity about Theo Epstein, and the way he pushes his employees,” said Hazen, who worked under Epstein in the Red Sox’s front office. “He demands excellence ...

The debt rule is unlikely to have any impact on the team on the field—Los Angeles has been looking to trim player payroll for a few years now anyway—but going from $300 million in payroll to $200 million in the span of three years seems daunting. It shouldn’t be too difficult given the salaries the Dodgers have coming off the books the next few years though:

At last, there’s this part: Segura has two more years of team control. Haniger has the full six. And what sort of impact might be expected in 2017? We know that Segura is likely to play every day. With Haniger, that hasn’t really been decided. But to even things out, let’s consider the Steamer600 projection, which projects plays out over 600 plate appearances. Segura’s projection shows a 94 wRC+, with a 2.1 WAR. And Haniger? We see a 98 wRC+, and a 2.0 WAR. There’s ...

Rather than trying to find the next Fernandez at the Winter Meetings, the more realistic options are finding starters with track records of durability, as well as other pitchers who could be on the rebound.

Free agents such as Doug Fister, Ivan Nova, Travis Wood, Jonathon Niese, Justin Masterson and Edinson Volquez could be fits. So are pitchers coming back from injuries, such as lefty C.J. Wilson.

Another strategy the Marlins are considering is finding starters capable of going five or six ...

Description:
The Boston Red Sox are seeking an Analyst for the team’s Pitching Development and Baseball Research & Development groups. The role will focus primarily on using an analytical approach to evaluate pitcher performance and provide support to development staff in the field. The analyst will work closely with VP, Pitching Development and the R&D team to develop methods to improve the effective understanding and application of pitch tracking data throughout Baseball ...

Weldon Wyckoff, a member of the Boston Redsox pitching staff, is the owner and manager of the leading taxicab service at his home in Williamsport, Pa. It is said that since the close of the big series the number of cabs in the service have been materially increased. Wyckoff, a former member of Connie Mack’s team, is a pitcher who has a world of stuff, yet has been unable to develop into a winner.

In assessing state income tax variations in how teams pursue free agents, players’ representatives should consider the impact of “jock taxes.” As we have explained in other SI.com articles, a “jock tax” is a tax imposed by a state and municipality on the proportion of income attributed to athletes on visiting teams when they play games in that state or municipality. Put in its most basic form, a jock tax is an income tax levied on a visiting team’s ...

Can a deal be made to the Angels then? I believe that a deal could be landed by offering Michael Wacha, Jaime Garcia, and Peralta and/or Matt Adams. It might also take a sweetener like Luke Weaver. Would Weaver be too much to ask?

While this might seem like too much to ask, it would not surprise me to see the Cardinals package Weaver plus some of these names to land Simmons and I would NOT mind that.

Players who were Diamondbacks may be unfair when they tell people that the D’Backs are the team that hates players, but it’s the reputation. Think about it, then just let the front office you hired run the baseball end, while you work on the stadium and television and marketing deals. I mentioned to one of the most influential Red Sox officials that several Cubs front office members had told me they think Theo Epstein could be the CEO of almost any Fortune ...

Once Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, there was a small window where it was somewhat easier for Latin players to make the transition to las Grandes Ligas. But that all changed when Castro overthrew the Batista regime and took control of Cuba in 1959.

Luis Tiant, the star pitcher for the Indians and Red Sox and who pitched for the Yankees as well, never returned to his native Cuba after the 1961 failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Tiant, now 76, was playing in Mexico at the time of the ...

C—David Ross, A Pitcher’s Best Friend
If you watched the postseason at all, you know that Jon Lester’s inability to throw to first base or prevent runners from taking huge leads was a big story for all of October. But you also noticed that Lester wasn’t being victimized by stolen bases nearly as badly as you’d think. Why? A big part of that is due to the skill of Lester’s personal catcher, the now-retired Ross.
We’re specifically talking about exchange time, which is the time from when the ball ...

The Dodgers, who have spent more than a billion dollars on player payroll in the first four seasons of Guggenheim Baseball Management, face a mandate to reduce debt in order to conform to Major League Baseball rules.

The club is expected to reduce payroll for a second consecutive season, with the goal of cutting from about $300 million in 2015 to closer to $200 million in 2018.

This project is simple: you will be presented with two hall-of-fame eligible baseball players at a time, and you simply have to indicate which had the more outstanding careers. The head-to-head results are collected, with final results presented in the near future. See the complete list for players .